The Justice Department's armed, nighttime seizure of Elian Gonzalez, which all the world saw, has frightening implications for everyone in America. Although reasonable people may disagree about who should speak for Elian or where he should live, there should be no disagreement that such questions, in this nation, should be decided with full respect for due process and the rule of law.

Yet due process and the rule of law are precisely what are now at issue in this case. The president and the attorney general have insisted that the government had both the right and duty to break into Elian's Miami home "to enforce the decisions of the INS and the federal courts." But the Executive Branch is not a law unto itself. Just two days before the raid, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected the Justice Department's request to order Elian removed from the home of his American relatives, saying, "we decline to proceed in that manner." Moreover, the court expressed serious doubts about the Justice Department's reading of both the law and its own regulations, adding that Elian had made a "substantial case on the merits" of his claim.

In reaction to the court's opinion, the Justice Department apparently decided to take matters into its own hands. On Good Friday evening, after the offices had closed, the department sought a "search" warrant not from the judge familiar with the case but from a night-duty magistrate, submitting a supporting affidavit that seriously distorted the facts. Armed with that dubious warrant, it launched an early morning paramilitary raid.

Given the court's already established jurisdiction over this case, the government's precipitous actions constitute a serious and deeply disturbing intrusion into the authority of the judicial branch of government, raising profound questions about the separation of powers. Because unilateral actions by the INS, in this case as well as others, raise serious questions of civil liberty, we call on Congress to hold hearings to examine the implications for the rule of law in this nation.

Signed by: William Bennett, Linda Chavez, Charles Colson, Edward Crane, Midge Decter, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Destro, Bernard Dobranski, Steven Duke, Milton Friedman, Edwin Feulner, Maggie Gallgher, David Gelernter, Mary Ann Glendon, C. Boyden Gray, Nat Hentoff, Gertrude Himmelfard, Michael Horowitz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Douglas Kmiec, Mark R. Levin, Robert Levy, William Mellor, Theodore Olson, Roger Pilon, Norman Podhoretz, Ronald Rotunda, Abigail Thernstrom, Stephan Thernstrom, George Weigel

(Across the top of the ad are the following quotations and their authors):

"By enforcing its own order, without the judicial imprimatur of a court mandate, the Justice Department has reinforced a precedent that endangers the rights of all American citizens."

– Alan M. Dershowitz, Harvard law professor

"The armed invasion of the home of Elian's relatives in Miami by federal officers combat-ready with the deadliest of military rifles, the shocking abduction of the boy seen around the world, are so unconstitutional and cruel that they keep the hope alive that this time the courts and Congress will not allow the White House to get away with it."

– A.M. Rosenthal, former executive editor of The New York Times

"Ms. Reno's decision to take the law as well as the child into her own hands seems worse than a political blunder. Even if well intended, her decision strikes at the heart of constitutional government and shakes the safeguards of liberty."

– Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard law professor